America will forever remember this year's Iowa caucus – no matter what happens next

When the actual results are announced few people will notice, writes Andrew Buncombe in Iowa

Supporters of democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) wait for results to come in at his caucus night watch party on February 03, 2020 in Des Moines, Iowa (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Iowa has a habit of getting under one’s skin.

Barack Obama remembers it as the place he won a stunning upset in 2008, pushing Hillary Clinton into third place at the start of a long and bitter primary challenge. That same year, Republican Mike Huckabee, the father of Donald Trump’s former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, also stormed to victory, elbowing past Mitt Romney and John McCain, the latter of whom would be the GOP’s challenger to Obama.

Four years ago, Bernie Sanders came within a half-percentage point of Clinton, after her campaign sorely underestimated his vigour and appeal.

And what about the 2020 caucuses? The only thing they will be remembered for is chaos and shambles.

Even when the full results are released by the Iowa Democratic Party, only the campaigns themselves will really pay close scrutiny. Most people will have moved on.

The candidates themselves, whose representatives took part in an ill-tempered conference call with party officials on Tuesday, are already campaigning in New Hampshire, freshening up their stump speeches with some references to the Granite state, and perhaps throwing in a joke or two about what happened in amid the cornfields.

In another sense, it feels people are also moving on from Iowa. Its governor and two senators, all Republicans, defended the state’s caucus system and its position as being first in the nation to vote.

“Iowa’s unique role encourages a grassroots nominating process that empowers everyday Americans, not Washington insiders or powerful billionaires,” they said.

But even if people were buying that before Monday night’s debacle – and lots of people were demanding reform – surely they are no longer.

What we have learned from the travails of the Democratic Party, which started its primary seasons with a large, highly diverse field, is that it is much harder for people of colour to gain traction in Iowa and New Hampshire, and that, as result, their entire campaigns are hobbled from the start.

Among the first and second tiers of the candidates still in race, only Andrew Yang is a person of colour. People point out Obama was able to not only to win the party’s primary in Iowa but also beat McCain there in the general election. Yet, Obama was a rare talent who was able to build a broad coalition based on the idea of change, and against growing anger and dismay over the direction the nation was taking under George W Bush and Dick Cheney.

In the coming days, the news will be dominated by countless stories – Trump’s impeachment trial, his state of the union address and the latest twist in the coronavirus crisis. People will not be talking about Iowa, except to say it was a mess.